With Great Britain and Australia claiming the first two gold medals of the World Aquatics Championships – Doha 2024, another four gold medals will be awarded on day two across diving, artistic swimming and open water.
Diving | Men 1m Springboard
Image Source: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images
The People’s Republic of China has delivered the gold medallist in the Men’s 1m Springboard event at every World Aquatics Championships since 2005, although a former Chinese diver may be out to spoil this streak for his new homeland.
Athletes to Watch:
Li Shixin (AUS): Australia won the last individual diving gold of Fukuoka 2023, and yesterday won the first individual diving gold of Doha 2024, so who’s to say that it won’t be a three-peat of individual gold for the ‘green & gold’ in the Men’s 1m Springboard. Li Shixin was fifth in this event in 2023 and won bronze in 2022, and is also a former two-time world champion in this event when he won gold for the People’s Republic of China in 2011 and 2013.
Zheng Jiuyuan (CHN): Fukuoka bronze medallist Zheng Jiuyuan will be the People’s Republic of China’s sole representative in this event with defending champion Peng Jianfeng not making the trip to Doha. With tough internal competition in the 3m Springboard event this will be Zheng’s third successive World Aquatics Championships where his only individual event is the 1m Springboard.
Previous Championships:
2023: Gold – Peng Jianfeng (CHN), Silver – Osmar Olvera (MEX), Bronze – Zheng Jiuyuan (CHN)
2022: Gold – Wang Zongyuan (CHN), Silver – Jack Laugher (GBR), Bronze – Li Shixin (AUS)
Open Water | Women 10km
Image Source: Octavio Passos/Getty Images
It’s medals and Olympic qualification on the line as the Open Water program kicks off in the picturesque course at Doha’s Old Port with plenty of new faces joining some of the stalwarts of the sport.
Athletes to Watch:
Leonie Beck (GER): It’s hard to go past Germany’s Leonie Beck. Last year’s World Champion in Fukuoka and silver medallist in Budapest, Beck has already booked her place for Paris; but don’t expect that to mean she is any less desperate to try to break the pack open in the early part of today’s race as she strives for another German open water gold.
Katie Grimes (USA): Fresh from a unique medal double of the 10km Open Water and 400m Individual Medley in Fukuoka, teenager Katie Grimes clearly succeeds in most things she attempts. Last year she was the United States of Amercia’s first athlete to book their spot to the Paris Olympics, and today is an important step in what has been a twelve month preparation to attempt to deliver an open water gold for Team USA in four months time.
Previous Championships:
2023: Gold – Leonie Beck (GER), Silver – Chelsea Gubecka (AUS), Bronze – Katie Grimes (USA)
2022: Gold – Sharon van Rouwendal (NED), Silver – Leonie Beck (GER), Bronze – Ana Marcela Cunha (BRA)
Artistic Swimming | Women Solo Technical
Image Source: Hiroyuki Nakamura/World Aquatics
The first Artistic Swimming gold of Doha 2024 will be awarded this afternoon in an open field where the top five swimmers in the preliminaries on day one were separated by less than twenty points.
Athletes to Watch:
Vasiliki Alexandri (AUT): Doha marks a fifth World Aquatics Championships appearance for Austria’s Vasiliki Alexandri who won silver medals in Fukuoka in both the Women’s Solo Technical and Women’s Solo Free. While the Greek-born swimmer won’t have to compete with Japan’s Yukiko Inui who won both golds last year, her biggest challenge may come from fellow Greek-born Evangelia Platanioti whose score in the preliminaries eclipsed all but Inui’s gold medal winning score from last year. Alexandri is the sole of the Austrian triplets that made the trip to Doha with her sisters Eirini Alexandri and Anna-Maria Alexandri late withdrawals due to injury.
Kyra Hoevertsz (ARU): Two-time Fukuoka solo finalist Kyra Hoevertsz continues to impress on the international stage as she flies the flag for her small southern Caribbean nation that is home to just over 100,000 residents. Hoevertsz is also a World Aquatics Scholarship Programme athlete and Doha marks another chapter in what she calls her ‘second chance’ in the sport having first debuted on an international stage at Barcelona 2013 as a fifteen year-old. Hoevertsz would go on to compete at Kazan 2015, Budapest 2017 and Gwangju 2019, before taking an indefinite break from the sport due to the stresses of travel and lack of financial support. Hoevertsz is now back performing the best she has in her career and expect more big things from the now 25 year-old Aruban.
Previous Championships
2023: Gold – Yukiko Inui (JPN), Silver – Vasiliki Alexandri (AUT), Bronze – Iris Tio Casas (ESP)
2022: Gold – Yukiko Inui (JPN), Silver – Marta Fienda (UKR), Bronze – Evangelia Platanioti (GRE)
Diving | Mixed 10m Synchronized
Image Source: Tsutomu Kishimoto/World Aquatics
There is no preliminaries in the Mixed 10m Synchronized with nine pairs chasing the fourth diving gold medal of Doha 2024 on the second night of competition.
Athletes to Watch:
Huang Jianjie & Zhang Jiaqi (CHN): The People’s Republic of China’s Zhang Jiaqi will be aiming for back-to-back gold medals in this event following her second career gold medal in Fukuoka to go with her Women’s Synchronized 10m Platform gold from Gwangju 2019. In Doha she will be joined on the platform by young Chinese prodigy Huang Jianjie who at just thirteen is the only non World Champion on the Chinese diving team in Doha.
Kevin Berlin Reyes & Alejandra Estudillo Torres (MEX): Expect the Mexico pairing of Kevin Berlin Reyes and Alejandra Estudillo Torres to be in the contest for medals right through the final dive as they chase another Mixed 10m Synchronized medal for their nation. While a different pairing dived to silver in Fukuoka, Berlin Reyes did win bronze last year in the Men’s 10m Synchronized and has added this event to his roster for the 2024 championships. For Estudillo Torres this event marks her senior international debut with big things expected back home from the 18 year-old.
Previous Championships
2023: Gold – Wang Feilong & Zhang Jiaqi (CHN), Silver – Diego Balleza & Viviana del Angel (MEX), Bronze – Hiroki Ito & Minami Itahashi (JPN)
2022: Gold – Duan Yu & Ren Qian (CHN), Silver – Oleksiy Sereda & Sofiya Lyskun (UKR), Bronze – Carson Tyler & Delaney Schnell (USA)